talkmagic.co.uk

Hey all

Firstly i'll start off with explaining why i haven't been around recently. As many of you will know i am still but a young boy of 14, 15 in 8 days = D. Anyways with my GCSE's fast approaching they have had to take priority over my magic. Fortunately i have found a way to stay on top of this and still keep with the magic world. Do work when i get it.

Anyways i was talking to a friend of a friend who moved away to london not so long ago. We were talking about school work and about his A level (which he is doing in). Anyways one thing lead to another and we got talking about his final examine, which he had took a few days before.

The question was something like "Write a short essay convincing the marker that the chair you are sitting on doesn't actually exist using reason and logic". As you can imagine their faces looked horrified. In a two hours they had to write how a cahir they were sitting on wasn't actually there, tricky indeed.

Anyways everyone in the big hall began writing as soon as time begun but my friend (Dan his name) just thought and thought and thought. For the first time after an hour in and half into the test he picked up his pen, wrote a few words and put his pen down. As you can imagine the moderators of the test were fairly confused but as the test time fineshed they collected the sheet with a few words all the same.

A few weeks later the papers returned, only to find that my mate dan had hit an A* with flying colours. By now I'm sure you're all wondering what he must of wrote as i was when he started telling me the story. So here goes, all he wrote, to get him a A* in A level Psycology was.......
"What Chair?"

Now to my point. Just wondering if any of out logical thinkers or intelligent members of TM would have came up with that one. Aswell as are the A levels getting easier for some and harder for others.

Hope i haven't bored you too much

Sam

P.s. Hope to be floating around the boards a bit more often now.

For anything to exist at least one person has to percive it. Anyway your friend mayhave been standing up.

That would be a philosophy exam...

Are you sure he's not pulling your leg? I see no logic or reason in the statement "What chair?" That's no proof at all!

Maybe it was trick question because every one was on a stool or something.

Nope, everyone was on chairs and he showed the paper on cam, to be honest i didn't believe him either. Some times simple soloutions are the best i guess ,this goes to show that

Digby define what a chair is...

Well obviously people have their own definitions of chairs. I define a chair as a piece of furniture with four legs and back rest. It could or could not have arms.

The perception of the chair presupposes the concept of chair, and that it is the aggregation of tiny sub-atomic particles, which when viewed with the appropriate instruments could show that the chair is nothing more than space. Or, you could say that the chair is simply part of the matrix.

of course, as much as we'd like to believe things like this happen you're not quite able to pass an exam by writing 2 words?
although on that note i argued and got 100% on a maths assesment the other week by writing simply: "3" then claiming that the wording of the question asked only for the answer and no working, which was nice since i couldn't do the working, but the answer was easy(ish)

i've had someone give me the "prove this chair exists" thing once, a while back, in college. so my proof was to throw the chair at him and then claimed that if he thought it didn't exist he wouldn't have got out of the way, so he kind of prooved it himself.
although being a mathematician i think the idea of questions like this is obsolutly laughable! (although i accept that other people may have a slightly different view on the subject)

Being a psychology teacher, I can't imagine any exam board (definately not one I have seen) asking that question, and only that question for an exam. And also accepting that answer. That answer shows absolutely no knowledge of psychology at all, never mind an A grade. I think he is having you on.

Lawrence wrote:i've had someone give me the "prove this chair exists" thing once, a while back, in college. so my proof was to throw the chair at him and then claimed that if he thought it didn't exist he wouldn't have got out of the way, so he kind of prooved it himself.

"I refute him thus!"

A mate of mine had a philospophy question on his final exam which asked: "Is this a question?" - his answer? "Yes".

He failed .

that's just c*** (not the best). that'd get you full marks in a maths exam! it's why i like maths. answers are actually answers!
although i do fully respect the massive amounts of crossovers bewteen maths and philosophy, (we need only look at just decarte for that one!)
try visualising something in 4 dimensions, the madness of it all! the madness!

I love stupid stuff like this! For those of you that have read Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, there is an excellent arguement in there by Douglas Adams in which he proves that the population of the Earth is zero.

THat sounds like a pholosphy question. If it were a conversation, I'd start by asking for a definition of a chair, which is always fun.

chair noun
1. a seat with a back on which one person sits, typically having four legs and often having arms
2. an official position of authority a chair on the board of directors;
3. the chairman of a debate or meeting the speaker addressed the chair;
4. a professorship the chair of German;
5. an iron or steel cradle bolted to a sleeper in which the rail sits and is locked in position
6. short for: sedan chair
7. in the chair chairing a debate or meeting
8. take the chair to preside as chairman for a meeting, etc.
9. the chair an informal name for: electric chair
10. verb (transitive) to preside over (a meeting)
11. Brit to carry aloft in a sitting position after a triumph or great achievement
12. to provide with a chair of office
13. to install in a chair


...sorry ( :: oh dear :: )